(Arnolds Park)– A Spirit Lake industrialist/philanthropist is telling the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum to clean up its public image quickly if it’s anticipating another public fundraiser to save the Arnolds Park Amusement Park from financial ruin.
The venture is facing new financial woes after a seven million dollar-plus campaign saved the operation from the wrecking ball several years ago.
Berkley Bedell told the board Friday it will be extremely difficult to conduct any fundraising with its current reputation of internal bickering and allegations of conflicts of interest and what some perceive as mismanagement.
Bedell told the board they have the opportunity to put the past behind them with the election of new board members next week.
The board also Friday amended its bylaws in preparation for this coming Sunday’s election. Effective immediately, voting members will be those lifetime members of the Arnolds Park Amusement Park, Maritime Museum and Queen Two; proxy votes will NOT be allowed; and voting members must be at least 18 years of age. Board members who have resigned will be ineligible to serve for two years after they left the board. That effects several board members who recently resigned but wanted to run again.
One by-law change was NOT approved. A majority of the members voted to remove park employees from the board in an effort to deal with conflict of interest allegations. But the motion failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote to carry.
